


Love Like You

by TheHomestuckWhovian



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Confessions, Dorks in Love, F/M, Honesty, Implied Pearl/Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Memories, Spoilers for Episode: s05e18 A Single Pale Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 16:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14674662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHomestuckWhovian/pseuds/TheHomestuckWhovian
Summary: Rose Quartz loved Greg Universe in a way she hadn't loved any human before. She loved and respected him enough to be honest with him about the one secret she had once decided was better left in the past.





	Love Like You

**Author's Note:**

> The show is never quite clear on how much Greg knows.
> 
> **WARNING: Spoilers for "A Single Pale Rose"**

The two of them sat on the beach, Greg leaning on her shoulder and gently strumming a tune on guitar that wasn't his own, humming along with it. When she looked up, she could see the stars in the distance, and if she tried hard enough, she could point out where you would have to fly to reach Homeworld.

She didn't think too hard on that.

Instead, she turned her head slightly and quietly asked, "Greg?"

* * *

_It wasn't until Greg shouted at her after his failed attempt to fuse that she had realized that she was unfair to her previous partners._

_She hadn't loved the humans she had dated before in the way she loved Pearl, or even Garnet and Amethyst. She had been playing at romance really, and looking back, she realized that if the humans she had relationships in the past had felt the way Greg had, they never told her._

_They had worshipped her practically, and she had mistaken that for romance. The power imbalance was so reminiscent of the imbalance she had once had with Pearl that it made her feel almost ill._

_(An imbalance she still had with Pearl. It was not nearly as awful as it had once been. Pearl now had control over her own form, able to refuse her orders and argue with her. She had given up all power over Pearl when she had let that sword run her through, but there was that one pervasive order that lingered from Pearl's insidious programming that she was too frightened to remove, but the very nature of its existence now plagued her thoughts and she distanced herself from those romantic feelings she once had. Pearl was a free gem but she would never be truly free until no one had any power over her anymore.)_

_Greg was different. He loved her, but he didn't accept the unintentional disrespect anymore. He got angry with her and made sure she knew it, and he was fully willing to call her out for any immaturity she displayed. Even Pearl still hesitated._

_Rose loved him for his music and his humanity, but fell_ in _love with him for being himself and never letting anyone take him for granted, even her._

_Sometimes she was still the same immature gem that had pitched a fit for not getting her way, but Greg expected more from her, and that made her want to be that person._

* * *

He stopped playing, turning his head to look at her, and smiled, and if she had a heart it would be warmed at the sight of him.

"What's up, Rose?"

* * *

_Amethyst was a miracle, a precious miracle that filled her with joy, because her mistake hadn't corrupted every gem on Earth._

_The quartz was small, but she had been too. They had been disappointed at her size, for while she was massive among gems, she still was diminutive among them._

_She never wanted little Amethyst to feel the shame she had felt, and so she promised her that she was perfect._

_A small quartz and a small diamond. What a pair they were._

* * *

"I haven't been honest with you," she admitted. That was an understatement. She hadn't been honest much at all.

"About what?"

* * *

_Pearl was on her knees, unresponsive to her attempts to get her attention. Garnet was split, Sapphire gripping her head and sobbing because she hadn't seen it coming and she should have seen it coming while Ruby hugged her as if she might disappear if she let go._

_It was...devastating. She hadn't know the diamonds could do this. She hadn't realized they would do this. They hadn't cared for her before. Why did they only care now?_

_This was all her fault._

_Her tears flowed freely, but they could do nothing to heal the corruption around them._

* * *

"I...I am not what I told you I am," she began quietly. "I'm not really a Rose Quartz."

* * *

_The plan was simple, a perfect trick. Yellow and Blue would not risk harm to themselves once she was "shattered," and White never left Homeworld, running things from afar. Strategically, the shattering of a diamond would send troops running, and show that the Crystal Gems were truly serious about protecting the Earth._

_This one-sided war would be over, and then she could free Bismuth and she and her closest friends could be together again._

_Pearl was hesitant, but eventually promised. Once she was poofed, she could reform permanently as Rose Quartz and not have to hold her shapeshifted form anymore._

_It was painful, being stabbed through with her own sword, but she smiled at Pearl in reassurance before retreating into her gem, beginning the process of reforming._

_Pink Diamond was shattered._

_Rose Quartz was finally real._

* * *

"Really?" Greg asked, sounding surprised.

* * *

_Bismuth._

_Bismuth was one of her dearest friends. She was fantastic, expert at forging weapons and friendships. She didn't take abuse from anyone, and she stood by Garnet when some of the rebels looked down on her and encouraged Pearl, who now said that nobody owned her with such confidence and pride that she felt sick that it wasn't yet true._

_It would be true, somehow._

_But Bismuth was angry and fiercely dedicated, and she hadn't realized how far Bismuth was willing to go until the Breaking Point was presented to her, a weapon capable of shattering a diamond._

_Bismuth has presented her with the weapon to destroy her sisters._

_She refused. She couldn't stand to lose the gems under her command on either side of the battle. She didn't want anyone to be shattered, not Garnet or Bismuth of the Crystal Gems or Jasper and her sisters on the other side. She still believed that all she had to do was show her sisters that the situation was best solved by withdrawing._

_Her friend wouldn't listen to her, and Rose was forced to draw her sword and act in the end._

_But Bismuth was right, in a way. Her sisters wouldn't see that withdrawing was best until someone shattered._

_She would have to martyr herself._

* * *

"I'm..."

* * *

_Garnet was beautiful, and extraordinary, so much more than the sum of her parts._

_She had never realized that two different kinds of gems could fuse, and create someone new and incredible as a result._

_Garnet was strong and brave and practically fearless. But Garnet hated being lied to and the lies were piling up. Lies by omission were acceptable but she had lied to her dear friend's face, and the truth became more and more unreachable until finally she accepted that Garnet could never know the truth._

_She didn't want to be hated by her._

* * *

"It's okay, Rose," he told her, resting a hand on hers. "You don't have to tell me. All that matters is who you are now."

* * *

_Humans were so strange and interesting and wonderful. They ate and slept and danced and it was all so different._

_She didn't want them to die._

_The human zoo was nice at first, but humans didn't become so...human in it. They were best on Earth._

_She didn't want to destroy it._

* * *

She looked up at the sky and listened as she heard him begin to play a new song, one that she could tell he wrote, and she began to sing.

* * *

_Pearl wasn't like any other gem she knew. She was poised and elegant, but on the screens she watched as the gem fluidly moved with the sword, sharp stabs and swings, parrying with a hologram, moving like the dancer she was designed to be but with deadly skill._

_A pearl wasn't meant to fight, and she knew this, but a diamond wasn't meant to be small and Pearl training herself was more interesting than any dance, so she watched on the screens in awe._

_Eventually, she called Pearl in and began to talk to her._

_Pearl wasn't like any gem she knew. She was awkward, fumbling with words in the way she never fumbled with movement. She could get frustrated and annoyed and after talking a while she could eventually forget her place and show that. She was also brilliant, learning quickly how gem production worked and the process of creating a new type of gem. She even had some snark in her._

_After a meeting with Yellow, she turned to Pearl and asked, "What organic defected in her throne?"_

_The two laughed and she decided that, while some would consider Pearl defective, she was perfect in her eyes._

* * *

"I always thought I might be bad, now I'm sure that it's true. 'Cause I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you."

* * *

_She sat alone in her chamber, locked away from her sisters._

_It wasn't fair. If they wanted her to act like she was important, why didn't they at least treat her like one of them instead of like one of the other gems. She was a diamond too, but they didn't treat her like one._

_She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them._

_How could she be in a home filled with gems that belonged to her sister and still feel so alone?_

* * *

"Do...do you remember what I told you after you insisted I talk to you?"

Greg paused. "You told me that you weren't a real person."

"It...was not entirely accurate," she decided. "I exist, but...Rose Quartz doesn't. She never existed in the way everyone thought until I became her. I was a different gem. I was..."

* * *

_She was pregnant._

_She was pregnant!_

_The baby wasn't big enough to feel yet, inside her womb. The one she had to be poofed and reformed to create. Pearl had done it so Garnet and Amethyst wouldn't see the gem. Oh her stars, she was pregnant!_

_"My little baby," she whispered, smiling._

_Her child would have such a good life. She wanted them to grow up with the remaining Crystal Gems and Greg. She wanted them to make friends and go to school and love everyone and fall in love. She wanted them to be everything she couldn't in a life without the expectations of being a diamond and the tragedy of war weighing them down._

_She wanted her child, Steven or Nora or perhaps whatever name they chose for themself, to live a life with nothing holding them back._

_She believed in them._

* * *

"I was Pink Diamond, Greg."

"Oh..."

She nodded. "Earth...was my colony. My first. But I saw everything beautiful here and I just couldn't destroy it. I tried everything to leave it be. I...I made my sisters think I was shattered because I thought they wouldn't care and would go away. I hurt...so many gems."

"It doesn't matter who you were then," he told her. "You're not that person anymore. Literally. Just...it's okay. I don't hate you."

"Thank you, Greg." Then, with only a little hesitation. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Rose leaned in and kissed him, and for a moment she felt that he was right.

Gems didn't change and grow, but for a moment, it was a nice thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Greg playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by George Harrison at the beginning. It's a favorite of mine and I feel the somber tone fits the story well.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! This is my take on Rose Quartz. It's probably not the most accurate, but it's closer than before.
> 
> ~~I just realized that both stories I wrote about Rose have to do with her being Pink Diamond, though this one is based on the canon reveal and the first was based on bullshit.~~


End file.
